Forlong - Rivers of Life

108
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
days, all that is noblest in our nature lay dormant, and the creature, a mere animal,
and not much removed from him of our illustration, roamed naked through primeval
forests, with no food save fruits and roots, no
shelter from storms and cold, save rocks and
caves, and a prey to all those fierce animals
which geology proves then traversed all earth,
terrible in size, number, and ferocity. We
may reasonably conceive that the progenitors
of man were dwarfed in body, as well as in
mind, very inferior beings to the highly
nurtured civilised men of these days. We
find that as a rule all the aboriginal races
of India, and I believe throughout the world,
are still diminutive, generally very dark and
of feeble appearance, though often wiry and
enduring.
This is the true idea of early man
as accepted by all ancients, except where
priestly or tribal pride led them to say
they were “descended from the gods,” and
were once pure as their father El, or the
solar orb. One set of very ancient and
Fig. 35—THE GORILLA
learned men said that “before Prometheus
mankind lived like monkeys, naked, needy
and bestial, in woods and caves and trunks of trees, scarely sustaining themselves on
herbage, acorns, and other fruits, fed upon by wild beasts,” aud altogether an unprotected
piteous race. “Prometheus, the son of Iapetus and Themis—Foresight and
Justice, some say Desire (a common name for the serpent), and Destiny, sought out
Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom, Mechanism, and Invention, and by her aid ascended
to heaven, held his reed to the chariot of the sun and so brought down fire,
which raised all humanity; the bowels of the earth and trees of the forest, and treasures
of all kinds were then made available, and animals were killed or trained for
man’s service. Wisdom grew, for man learned arts and modes of instructing himself
and others; thus fire, heat, or friction produced all things.” So life was thought in
this higher stage to be produced by the sun, and so it became a god, and ever and
again men sought it, and believed the received it from divine light, as well as actual
Incarnations of the Elohim, and thus it is men have continued to light their fires
annually from Sol—ay, even till the other day in our own island, on Beltine or Mayday,
when the summer sun appears.
In these early, and if, without being accused of Darwinism, on which this is not